Jennie Bennett, Romance Author

For the past few weeks, I've gotten to Friday and felt completely drained. My blog posts went from "Happy Monday!" to "I hate everything, and I must be the most terrible person ever." So this week I am determined to change that. How? By talking about of my favorite things that happened this week. 1. Meeting new people. You know how every once in a great while you meet someone who is like minded? Someone who you make an instant connection with because you can completely relate to everything their going through? Well, before I joined Twitter last week, that happened to me maybe ten times. Now its pretty much daily. It's amazing to have this technology at our finger tips that can allow us to reach anyone in the world, and I completely love it! 2. Motivation. When I started my current work in progress, I stopped after about 25,000 words. Why? Because I was discouraged. I had no support and the internal editor in my head was telling me I was awful and I should ju...

For me music has always been a source of inspiration. My mother is a wonderful singer and I once hoped to excel in the art as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get those genes. I once fancied myself a bit of a dancer, but I never really did well. So today, I use music to help me get inspiration to write. I don't have a favorite band. As they say in Ever After "I could no sooner pick a favorite star from the sky." Plus my tastes are constantly changing. Today I thought I would share a few songs that seem to be impacting me the most right now. The ones that make me really feel, so that I can convey that emotion to the page. 1. Love scenes - Joe Gillette "You and I" No, you haven't ever heard of him, why, you ask? Well he is friend of a friend that is extremely talented, but not yet recorded. Let's get him there by watching his You Tube video! It's worth the watch -trust me - although half the views are probably mine. I choose this song because it brin...

When I started this blog I had intended it to simply be a place to vent my feelings about writing. I also hoped it would be a good tool to help me become a better writer, whilst learning more about other writers and their struggles. It hasn't taken long to figure out that I still have a lot to learn. There are places I would like to take this blog, but I can't go there without your help. I feel almost as if the majority of my post have been more like complaints, and no one likes a downer. Therefore, if I am to improve, how can I do this without you? You are the reason I am even here. I need to know what you would like to hear. Inspiring stories? Book Reviews? My crazy opinions? Snippets of creative stories? I want to know it all! Please , be brutally honest! What do you absolutely hate about what you have read? And what can I do to change that? Blogs should be a place for everyday people to find a common ground and relate to each other. So give me your opinion! If you don...

I'm sure you've all seen it, it has plagued the walls of Facebook for sometime now. It has brought on bragging airs and dismal looks. It has made your heart glow and made you want to rip it up in the same moment. It is the top 100 book list. They lure you in by saying most have only read six (a complete and utter lie for any high school graduate) so that you think if you've read twenty-four of the books you've done pretty well. That is, until you see that one friend who has supposedly read eighty of them. Then you feel like, even though you are an avid reader, you have somehow failed yourself. It's as if only these 100 books will ever matter, and if you dare read anything else your doomed. Well I have news, and maybe I'm the first one to say it (but probably not) I don't want to read every book on that list! A few years back I had several people tell me to read Wuthering Heights. "You've read Jane Eyre," they said, "this was by her siste...

I don't know about everyone else but I had a fantastic weekend! Here is a list a few of the more exciting things that happened. 1. I met Marie Osmond. 2. I got a date with the hubby. 3. I bought a whole outfit at Nordstrom rack for $50.00. 4. I stuffed my face. 5. My kids had an excellent Easter egg hunt. 6. I ate candy until I was sick. Since I am still coming off of this high, I thought I would share one fun thought about spring/Easter. It came to my realization this weekend that spring/Easter is all about second chances. I hate winter, I hate how everything dies and it's cold and icky for months. But spring reminds me that there is a cycle to life in which that ugly yellow lawn and that bare aspen tree become something beautiful once again. It fills me with hope for the good things to come in the rest of the year. A reminder that each day is new and we can always start again. On a side note, here is an incredibly cute picture of my daughter - Happy Spring!

Last night I attended my first meeting with the Utah League of writers (bet you didn't know writers are in league with each other) and it was really informative and great to meet other writers in the same area. It's funny how you can feel like you are a writer (which I say - as long as your writing, you are) yet really know very little about the writing community. I am just starting to learn about what's out there in the writer world and it's a little overwhelming. There are thousands of people out there, if not hundreds of thousands of people, who are writing novels. Many of those are writing in the same genre that you are, and so few even get a real break when it comes to book sales. It's all very discouraging. I've asked myself before, is it really even worth it to continue on? Now I'm asking it again. For once I am really looking inside myself and asking, can I handle the pressure? I'm just one person, who has never really been that successful at an...

The other day a friend of mine was asking me if I had read any good books lately. I told her of a few I had been reading to which she responded "You know, I wish I enjoyed reading like you do. I have the desire, but I just can't get into it. Do you know what I'm saying?" I laughed and said "I know exactly what your saying. I would love to sew, but that's probably never going to happen." I should tell you that I made an awful attempt a couple years ago. I was pregnant with my second child and knowing it was going to be a girl, I thought it would be so great to be crafty. I wanted to pass that skill onto her. It was Christmas time which made me think of my Christmas stocking growing up. My mother had bought simple stockings for us and sewed all of our names into them. Wouldn't it be great, though, if I made the stockings myself? I looked up a pattern, bought the materials and got to work. The whole time I thought of my eighth grade sewing teacher. She ...

I often take my kids to the library. We go because the play area gives them a chance to interact with other children. Well, today they discovered something wonderful . The library has books too! I have been trying to guide them in that direction for a long time, but all I got were looks like - this toy dinosaur is way cooler than a book - so I gave up. I figured we had enough books at home, and we spent enough time reading that they were satisfied with just going to the library to play. Today, however, (to my joy) they started bringing me books they were interested in. The girl brought me the book "Meat Eating Dinosaurs" and the boy choose "The Berenstain Bears family vacation." interesting choices to say the least, but hey, there only one and three. So I read a little, and they played a little. When the time came to go I asked, "Should we take these books home?" To which the boy replied "No we have to leave it here mom." I laughed as the boy v...

In the writing world there is a term for the days in which you simply have no desire to write. This term is called the dark days. It is all too appropriate as it often comes hand in hand with a dark a mood. Yesterday I was having one of them. In a miraculous turn of events, both my kids slept for three hours yesterday. You would think this would give me ample time to write, but I simply couldn't get into it. I wrote a little, hoping that some writing would help improve the mood, but it didn't. So, I played The Sims instead. Yes, it was awful of me, but everyone needs a break, right? Well, it came to a point where I thought surely the kids would awaken, so I stopped playing and listened at their doors. To my surprise, they still slept. You would think that after having some leisure time I would be completely ready to write. So naturally, I surfed the internet. I checked Facebook, a few times. I looked at a few blogs. Then finally I came to this article. I was saved! It gave m...

Good Monday everyone! I feel totally refreshed from a great weekend with good weather (finally!) even though I am now sunburned. Yup, it only takes me and hour of sitting in a lawn chair (in 60 degree weather) to become crispy red, that's how pale I am. On my honeymoon to San Deigo my husband and I, being the brilliant newlyweds we were, didn't pack any sunscreen and I spent the entire vacation looking like a lobster, whilst my husband looked like he had the perfect surfer-dude tan. Some people just get all the luck I guess, and unfortunately my children inherited my skin color (sorry kids!) Now that I'm a little older, with a little more wisdom (and a lot more sunscreen) I have learned a few things. One of those things is that life shouldn't always be rushed. So I will tell you now, that I won't ever write on the weekends. Last week I was writing so much, there were constantly words going through my head, which made it really hard to sleep. This weekend I emptied m...

Starting a blog kind of feels like I'm coming out of the closet. It's almost as if I've had all these thoughts and feelings hiding in me and now I'm saying "Look out world, here I am!" To tell you the truth I feel little embarrassed. It's scary in the same way as having a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of a crowded mall. Everyone's seen everything you've been trying so hard to cover up. Yet, I've been the one to put it all out there. That makes it as exciting as finding out you've won an award for something you thought was totally awful. Okay, so maybe I'm rambling, but this is what I feel today. I guess I'm just telling everyone to buckle up, because who knows what's going to fall out of my brain and end up on this page. I can see this blog becoming so much more then just my journey about writing a book, because, well let's face it, it's a slow process that always isn't very exciting. I see this blog as simply ...

Every child is asked "what do you want to be when you grow up?" Which really means, how on earth are you going to make a living when you have to pay the bills? My answers as a child were always varied - astronaut, singer, teacher, actress, scientist, chef, artist, archeologist, etc. Even though (to tell you the truth) my heart wasn't really into any of those things. The only thing I knew for certain, was that I wanted to be was a mother. It's interesting to think back to what my view of motherhood was then. I thought that when I was a mother I would let my kids eat ice cream whenever they felt like it, and I would never make them do any chores, and they would get an allowance just because. Ha! What a dream world that was. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked - my point here is that I never imagined I would enjoy spending parts of my day writing. When I was sophomore in high school I had never picked up a book just to enjoy reading. I had only read because I had to for...

So no one wants to know the books mentioned in the pervious post? Well, maybe it is a little too hard. So I am going to give fairly obvious hints for each book and the first one to guess all five will win $10 to Burger King. Wahoo for free lunch! 1. This series of books also involves Centaurs, a pen sword, and some lightning. 2. This book has poachers, underground living, and electric fences. 3. In this book we are introduced to a heavenly lion, a goat boy and a talking beaver. 4. Patronus 5. Think two minds in one body.

Firstly, let me say thank you to everyone who supported me yesterday. I feel invigorated and encouraged to continue on writing. It truly means something to me to have all of your support. Well, today I promised we would have little fun, so I thought we could play a game. I have chosen five different popular books (or series of books) and taken a Chapter heading or a snip-it of the book and it is your job to guess which book it comes from. I have mentioned a few of the books on this blog before, but not all of them. 1. "I drive my dog into a tree" 2. "It must be strong, whatever they shot into me, because it's a full day before I come to." 3. "Back on this side of the door." 4. "Flight of the fat lady." 5. "We thought of my memories, the pretty ones." So there you have it, this is pretty tough - so there may be a little prize if anyone can get all five!

Okay, so maybe it's time to tell you what my book is about, so you can ask yourself if it is book you will really enjoy or not. Well, I want to share that with you. I want you to feel like you are in a little secret. Only, I have one problem with doing that. Can you imagine spending weeks typing word after word (I'm up to 30,000 - by the way) and then saying in two sentences or less, what all those words are really about? Here's a prime example - Shannon Hale over at http://oinks.squeetus.com/ Posted this plot summary in August last year "After meeting once, two teenagers decide to get married (even though their families want to kill each other) with fatal results." Does this really sum up the beauty, tragedy, and painful memory that is Romeo and Juliet? No. Suppose I were to tell you that my story is about a young girl who grows up in a strange heretical type of society, only to discover she holds some sort of power over the ground she stands on, which, in turn, ...

When it comes to writing a book every writer asks themselves, would anybody really read this? As much as we would like to think we are only writing for ourselves, we can't help but have a secret desire to become the J.K. Rowling's and Stephenie Meyer's of the world. So I have to ask, what do you think makes a great story? What is your favorite story and why? For me, I love a story that involves adventure, romance, and little mystery. I would say I've enjoyed other books that don't have all these elements, but my favorite books involve all three. Percy Jackson, Maximum Ride, and Hunger Games -- there all wildly popular, but why? Is it only that these stories involve adventure, romance, and mystery? I think not, there must be more to it. What is it about the writers of these books that makes us want to wait up until midnight just to find out what Harry, Edward, and Katniss will do next? I will be the first to admit, I have no hope of reaching the same height of thos...

Greetings reader! I am sitting at my computer this morning for one reason, and one reason alone. I had this ingenious, totally original, ground breaking idea - to start a blog. ( I know, I know, you wish you had thought of it first .) Not just any blog, mind you, but a blog about my journey to (hopefully) write a book. Now that you all are captivated by my astounding intellect to think of such a thing as no one has ever dared think of before ( winky emoticon ) -let me just say, that you are welcome. This is going to be a place where I will share the thoughts, feelings, and struggles, of the life of an average person who simply has the desire to one day be deemed a writer. My only hope is that you will share this journey with me and help me to become the writer I know is just itching to crawl out from under my skin. There will be days when you will like to come and bask in the glory of my writing, and there will be days when you will despise the very keyboard I pound each word so thou...